Effects

[staticmigration]

OK heres another thought.

I haven't done much recording as yet merely testing, through as a i am, but i am posing some theoretical questions here that may help me choose some new gear to buy.

How important are effects on mixing or is it more likely to use them ideally on recording primarily and then get the levels right afterwards instead? or both? Or am i suggesting utter bollocks here?

And secondly how many effects reverbs, compressors, limiters, do you surely need? What i am suggesting is can you cut corners here having already spent a large amount (well from my budget at least) on other gear. Or is it best to get cheaper units and more of them separately or one large do-it-all thing at great expense?

Probably the wrong forum again but i am positive effects pose problems here too...

 

[sjoko2]

Its really impossible to give you any advise on the above - how long is a piece of string?
Also - are you recording analogue or digital?

I think the minimum requirement for putting anything decent together is a good reverb unit

 

[entenow]

i wouldn't use any effects while recording even if i was quite sure that the result is the desired sound. always consider that effects on recorded material cannot be easily removed (and with great loss in quality). only on vocals some compression can be carefully(you mustn't overcompress it) applied because vocals need in many cases need compression and so you can have a higher recording level on the quiter parts of the song which results in better quality.

effects belong to the mixing process.
and depending on the kind of music you record you won't need many effects to get good results. in addition, the less effects you use the better.

if you're mixing digitally don't bother about how many effects you have to buy cause you can open several instances of it.
on many of my mixes (from jazz to punk) I only used a little bit of eq in order to place the track better in the whole mix and to obtain the punch for that instrument; two reverb units as send effects and some compressors and gates depending on how many tracks needed it. any additional effect that i tried changed the sound in a queer way so it didn't sound natural anymore, but if thats the desired "effect", you're right.
so my advise that you start with these basic devices and try a little bit. and don't buy any all in one unit because if it should be sounding it has to be really expensive.

greetings

entenow

 

[staticmigration]

Furthermore

OK thanks for that now.. i am completely recording analogue. and i have been told compressing software is less than impressive.

So if i am gonna mix using the software as it appears i may have to, unless i can cheat my mixer (see previous 'inserts' thread) then where can i add compression? Do i have to have unit for each track or can it reasonbly be mixed in sub groups?
If i cannot mix each track to channels on my hardware mixer, will i have to add it on the whole mix and try and eq some parts while listening back to get the desired sound before sending it back through some stereo inputs in the mixer and adding effect? (am i repeating myself?). Assuming i have the grasp of the technical processes involved in this. And it all depends on whether or not i can use inserts as outputs then it will solve some mix/effects problems all ion one go.

and i just though, is there any decent compression software at all just in case the primary problem is the route i have to take.

Of course i could change my mixer but this is too expensive at this stage now...

Confusing myself now i think?? hmmm
Static

 

[sjoko2]

Have a look on ebay - you can get some very decent multi effect processors second hand